Saudi to slash oil exports after price slide: Energy minister

Saudi Aramco is getting ready to issue a bond in the second quarter of 2019 to help it finance the acquisition of a majority stake in petrochemical giant Sabic, and this debt issue would force Saudi Arabia's state oil firm to disclose its financials and oil reserves for the first time in decades, Bloomberg reports.

Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom, the world's top crude supplier, would cut its output to 7.2 million barrels per day in January, from 8.0 million bpd in November, with a further 100,000 bpd cut in February.

OPEC and its allies decided last month to cut their overall output by 1.2 million bpd starting January to shore up sliding prices.

Brent and the world´s other benchmark crude, West Texas Intermediate, both slumped late past year to 18-month lows of $49.93 and $42.36 per barrel respectively.

Saudi Arabia's reserves of easily recoverable oil have always been the world's largest.

Leading consultants DeGolyer and MacNaughton (D&M) conducted the independent certification.

The Saudi Energy Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA that Saudi Arabia's proven oil and gas reserves stood at around 268.5 billion barrels of oil and 325.1 trillion standard cubic feet of gas as of the end of 2017.

Saudi Aramco-whose initial public offering (IPO) touted for 2018 is now all but scrapped-plans to buy 70 percent in Sabic currently in the hands of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia in a deal expected to be worth US$70 billion.